In this post, I would like to explain the difference between Teams Wiki and OneNote. Both apps are highly visible from SharePoint and Teams and seem to serve the same purpose, so I would like to explain what they are and whether you should use one or another.
OneNote
Topic: OneNote and Microsoft Teams: The Perfect Pair.
OneNote is an application that allows you to take all kinds of notes. It is part of the MS Office suite, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint. What makes OneNote unique is that it allows you to capture all types of notes from text to images to audio. I highlighted the OneNote app extensively in this post.
OneNote has a very similar structure to that of a physical notebook with sections and pages, making the organization of notes very intuitive.
Where does OneNote reside?
Microsoft Teams To add a new or existing OneNote notebook to a channel in Microsoft Teams, select Add a tab at the top of the channel and select OneNote. From there, choose an option: To start from scratch, select Create a new notebook, add a name to the Notebook name field, and click Save. You use Pivot Tables everyday. Now it is time to find out the real power and nuances. 5.5 hours video, exercises, samples, Q&A. Hello Yesterday I couldn't open OneNote in Teams and when I tried to create a Notebook in Teams, it didn't work either. Products (70) Special Topics (19) Video Hub (87) Most Active Hubs. Microsoft Teams. Security, Compliance and Identity. Microsoft Edge Insider.
When you create a new Team Site in SharePoint Online, your OneNote notebook is created automatically. The link to OneNote is always prominently placed on the SharePoint Site navigation.
Physically, it lives in the Site Assets library on a given site. If you click Gear Icon > Site contents > Site Assets, you will see it there.
Teams Wiki
Teams Wiki is a tab that appears in Microsoft Teams when you create a new team. Right next to Posts and Files tabs is the Teams Wiki tab. The tab can be removed if necessary. The idea behind Teams Wiki is that you can use it to take notes.
Just like OneNote, it has a section/page structure as well, though it does it in reverse as compared to OneNote. OneNote has Sections, and for each Section, you can create multiple Pages, and Wiki has Pages where you can add Sections to. Unlike OneNote, it does not have any other features, think of it as a “very lite version” of OneNote where you can only capture text notes in Page/Section layout.
Using Onenote With Microsoft Teams
You can create new Pages by clicking New page button.
Where does Teams Wiki reside?
Perhaps it is no surprise at all that Teams Wiki resides in… SharePoint (where else!). All the data resides in a special Document library called Teams Wiki Data. It does not exist initially on the site, but gets created automatically the very first time someone accesses the Wiki tab on a Teams channel (even if the user does not add any content to it).
To access Teams Wiki Data, on the connected SharePoint Site, click on Gear Icon > Site contents.
- All the Wiki Pages are organized by Channel folders
- For each of the pages created in Teams Wiki, you get a file with .mht extension
- Once downloaded, you can open these files with either a Word or browser app (not that you really need to)
Integration with Teams Meeting
Perhaps the “coolest” feature of Wiki is its integration with Teams Meetings. When you are in a meeting, and click on Show meeting notes, it allows you to capture notes.
When you start using Meeting Notes feature in Teams, it automatically creates another tab in a Team’s channel called Meeting Notes, where you can access all the meeting notes from all the meetings. Each meeting becomes a Page in that tab with respective sections underneath.
Microsoft Teams Onenote Read Only
Teams Wiki Limitations
- Teams Wiki is not searchable from MS Teams. Ironically, it does search and find keywords within the Wiki if you execute your search from the SharePoint site (it does search the contents of those .mht files). But that is not useful, in my opinion.
- When you delete a Wiki Tab or Meeting Notes Tab (that gets created automatically when you capture notes from Teams Meetings), all the files get deleted from that Team Wiki Data document library and are not recoverable (they do not go to SharePoint Recycle Bin like regular deleted files)
- Teams Wiki has very limited capabilities when compared to OneNote
Recommendation
I usually advocate for the use and adoption of various tools and features we have in Teams, SharePoint, and Office 365, but in this case, I recommend that you use OneNote over Wiki. I personally find it a bit frustrating to use, and due to its several limitations above, it does not make much sense to me.
As an alternative, I, of course, recommend OneNote. Most users are already familiar with it, and it is very simple, yet powerful. You do get a link to OneNote notebook in SharePoint already by default + you can add a tab to it from any channel as well with MS Teams.
How to remove Teams Wiki
- Navigate to the channel where you want to remove Wiki from, then hover over the Wiki Tab and choose Remove
- On the confirmation pop-up, click Remove
- Please note that the above action is not recoverable!
- Repeat for all the other channels within your Team (Wiki Tabs are unique per channel!)
How to add OneNote Tab instead of the Wiki tab
- Click the “+” sign next to add a new Tab
- Choose OneNote
- By default, it shows the OneNote notebook that is tied to the related Team/Site. However, you can add any Notebook from any other site as well. Click Save.
- You are all set!
Every staff team comes with its own linked OneNote Staff Notebook. Your Staff Notebook is a digital notebook that cultivates educator collaboration at the school and district levels. Staff team owners act as Staff leaders in the notebook and have permissions to manage Staff Notebook settings.
Microsoft Teams And Onenote Integration
Teams delivers these essential components of the OneNote Staff Notebook experience:
Staff Member Notebooks — a private space shared only with the staff leader and staff members. Professional development, lesson plans, classroom observations, evaluations and parent communication are among the possibilities.
Content Library — a read-only space for storing information on policy, procedure, school planning and more.
Collaboration Space — where multiple staff members can share, organize, and collaborate, from lesson plans and meeting notes to department-wide initiatives.
Find Staff Notebook in Teams
If you haven’t set up your Staff Notebook yet, you’ll be guided through the right steps the first time you visit the Staff Notebook tab.
Navigate to a class team, then select the General channel.
Select the Staff Notebook tab.
Add or edit pages using the expandable menu at the left side of your notebook
Use Staff Notebook in a channel
Each time you create a new channel in the class, a new section is automatically created in the Staff Notebook’s Collaboration Space. Staff leaders and staff members can edit and work on OneNote pages within a channel.
Navigate to a class team, then select a channel.
Select the Notes tab.
Open Staff Notebook in full-screen mode
Expand the Staff Notebook tab to a bigger size by selecting the Expansion icon (diagonal, double sided arrow).
Microsoft Teams Onenote Not Working
Manage Staff Notebook settings in Teams
Manage your Staff Notebook settings by navigating to your notebook in Teams, then selecting the Staff Notebook tab > Manage Notebooks.
Use these settings to:
Edit notebook sections
Copy a link to your notebook
Create a Leader-Only section group
Lock the Collaboration Space
Open Staff Notebook in OneNote
Select Open in OneNote to launch into OneNote and access all of Staff Notebook’s learning features.
Notes:
When using a Staff Notebook created via Microsoft Teams, you cannot add/remove members using the Staff Notebook Wizard online.
Notebook members must be added/removed via Microsoft Teams.
Learn more
Additional resources for educators